Starting tonight, even Romeo and Juliet will be fundraising for the Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance Marathon.

The School of Theatre Thon team will be presenting Who Loved Not At First Sight: The Trials and Tribulations of Romance According to W. Shakespeare at the Pavilion Theatre. This donation-driven performance will have no admission fee; however, contributions will be collected at intervals throughout the show.

The Shakespeare-oriented performance is a rendition of many collective scenes from some of the British playwright's most popular works: Romeo and Juliet, Taming of the Shrew, As You Like It, A Midsummer's Night Dream and more.

Each scene showcases different moments that examine love, perpetuating a common threading throughout the entirety of the performance. Since the theme for the production was "Many hearts, one home," student director David Bonner (junior-theatre) said he wanted to present a show that was alive with all sorts of relationships -- friendship, romantic and parental.

However, these Shakespeare scenes will be considered far from traditional.

"Nothing is spoken in meter," Bonner said. "We're taking a higher language and re-making it with a contemporary tongue. If you pull back the flowery layers of the Shakespearean form, there's a heart behind every line."

Bonner and assistant director Rebecca Vandiver (senior-theatre) agreed that the audience and performers needed to understand every line in the play. To overcome the stereotypical Shakespeare language barrier, the directors decided that natural speech should take the place of the usual metered Old English.

"If we tried to present Shakespeare like a poem, then the wonderful story is going to get lost through the archaic language," Vandiver said. "We wanted to make it a natural experience for the audience."

Ariel McAnulty (senior-theatre) said the most difficult part of Shakespeare was in staying true to the nature of the language. "In other productions, you can always improvise. With Shakespeare, you can't," McAnulty said.

McAnulty, who has roles in scenes from Romeo and Juliet and Taming of the Shrew, said despite the prescribed difficulty of Shakespeare, many of the actors had good senses of humor and portrayed their roles in sarcastic or comedic ways.

Although the actors have been practicing for weeks, the full cast met for the first time a week before opening night.

"The entire cast hasn't worked a lot together because of the nature of the show," Vandiver said. "But the actors are so committed -- it's all come together really well."

Vandiver said students tend to be extremely busy this time of year, and so this particular show wasn't as organized as previous shows. However, because of the flexible nature of the show, the actors could practice at times that were best for them. "We had people coming in at 10 a.m. to practice, and we had people coming in at midnight," she said.

Despite the abnormal practice rehearsals, Vandiver expressed satisfaction in the show's overall cohesiveness.

"There's this moment in rehearsal when a scene just comes together, and everything just somehow clicks. It's exceptionally exciting, and the cast just feeds on that sort of energy," Vandiver said.

Bonner said much of his enthusiasm comes in working for a good cause.

"None of the money we make will go towards the show's budget," Bonner said. "Every penny will go directly to Thon and the Four Diamonds Fund."

The show is tonight and tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 15 at 5:05 p.m.at The Pavilion Theatre. The show is free, but donations will be accepted with all proceeds going toward Thon.